About the Donor:

Cummins Technologies India Private Limited has established the Cummins Chair Professorship at IIT Bombay to promote excellence in teaching and research in Green Energy.

Founded in 2008, Cummins Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. includes divisions like Turbo Technologies, Emission Solutions, Business Services, Fuel Systems, and the Phaltan Engine Plant. While Turbo Technologies leads in air handling systems for engines, Emission Solutions designs advanced exhaust systems. Cummins’ Business Services handles global shared services, its Fuel Systems focuses on fuel efficiency and emissions, and the Phaltan Plant manufactures key engine components, supporting their global operations.

About the Appointee:

Prof. Pratibha Sharma, Associate Dean (Academic Programmes), Professor, Department of Energy Science and Engineering

Prof. Pratibha Sharma is currently the Associate Dean (Academic Programmes) at IIT Bombay and the Cummins Chair Professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering.

Her research interests include hydrogen storage materials and systems, hydrogen utilization, low-cost earth-abundant materials for photovoltaic applications, and materials for biomedical applications. She has worked on various types of hydrides like chemical, complex, and metal hydrides for solid-state hydrogen storage, their modifications, catalysis, support, and tailoring of the reaction mechanisms. On the systems side, she has been working on the simulation, design, and development of hydrogen storage canisters for various applications.

She has supervised 19 PhD students, and more than 40 M.Tech. and M.Sc. students. She has over 106 refereed International journal publications, five patents granted to her credit, and has applied for two Indian and three US patents.

She has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers (FNAE). She has also been awarded the “Outstanding Service Award” by the International Association of Hydrogen Energy, for her altruistic contribution towards the world hydrogen economy.

Prof. Sharma leads several multi-institutional R&D projects on hydrogen systems development and integration for different applications. These projects have several IITs and industries as partners that are working together for hydrogen-based solutions. She also leads a Centre on Hydrogen Energy Systems Research at IIT Bombay.

Prof. Sharma has developed four research laboratories with state of art facilities at IIT Bombay. These include:

–  Hydrogen Storage Laboratory
–  DST – IIT Bombay Energy Storage Platform on Hydrogen
–  Energy Storage Materials Synthesis Laboratory
–  Hydrogen Energy Systems & Applications Laboratory

She is also collaborating with several leading institutions in Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, UK, etc. She is a member of the advisory group of the National Hydrogen Mission (NHM). She is on the expert panel of various funding agencies and advises various ministries on the different aspects of hydrogen-based technologies and research.

She authored the “India Country Status Report on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” and was the convener for the hydrogen storage sub-group for drafting the “R & D Roadmap for Green Hydrogen Ecosystem in India.” She has developed various hydrogen storage technologies based on solid-state methods and has demonstrated several proofs of concept for vehicular applications and stationary applications. These technologies demonstrated are at TRL 5 or above and the materials and systems for hydrogen storage are completely indigenously developed.